Former '60 Minutes' commentator Andy Rooney dies
By David Bauder The Associated Press
November 4, 2011



NEW YORK - Andy Rooney so dreaded the day he had to end his signature "60 Minutes" commentaries about life's large and small absurdities that he kept going until he was 92 years old.

Even then, he said he wasn't retiring. Writers never retire. But his life after the end of "A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney" was short: He died Friday night, according to CBS, only a month after delivering his 1,097th and final televised commentary.

Rooney had gone to the hospital for an undisclosed surgery, but major complications developed and he never recovered.

Rooney talked on "60 Minutes" about what was in the news, and his opinions occasionally got him in trouble. But he was just as likely to discuss the old clothes in his closet, why air travel had become unpleasant and why banks needed to have important sounding names.

He won one of his three Emmy Awards for a piece on whether there was a real Mrs. Smith who made Mrs. Smith's Pies. As it turned out, there was no Mrs. Smith.

"I obviously have a knack for getting on paper what a lot of people have thought and didn't realize they thought," Rooney once said. "And they say, `Hey, yeah!' And they like that."

Looking for something new to punctuate its weekly broadcast, "60 Minutes" aired its first Rooney commentary on July 2, 1987. He complained about people who keep track of how many people die in car accidents on holiday weekends. In fact, he said, the Fourth of July is "one of the safest weekends of the year to be going someplace."

More than three decades later, he was railing about how unpleasant air travel had become. "Let's make a statement to the airlines just to get their attention," he said. "We'll pick a week next year and we'll all agree not to go anywhere for seven days."

In early 2009, as he was about to turn 90, Rooney looked ahead to President Barack Obama's upcoming inauguration with a look at past inaugurations. He told viewers that Calvin Coolidge's 1925 swearing-in was the first to be broadcast on radio, adding, "That may have been the most interesting thing Coolidge ever did."

For his final essay, Rooney said that he'd live a life luckier than most.

"I wish I could do this forever. I can't, though," he said.

He said he probably hadn't said anything on "60 Minutes" that most of his viewers didn't already know or hadn't thought. "That's what a writer does," he said. "A writer's job is to tell the truth."

True to his occasional crotchety nature, though, he complained about being famous or bothered by fans. His last wish from fans: If you see him in a restaurant, just let him eat his dinner.

Rooney wrote for CBS stars such as Arthur Godfrey and Garry Moore during the 1950s and early 1960s, before settling into a partnership with newsman Harry Reasoner. With Rooney as the writer, they collaborated on several news specials, including an Emmy-winning report on misrepresentations of black people in movies and history books. He wrote "An Essay on Doors" in 1964, and continued with contemplations on bridges, chairs and women.

"The best work I ever did," Rooney said. "But nobody knows I can do it or ever did it. Nobody knows that I'm a writer and producer. They think I'm this guy on television."

He became such a part of the culture that comic Joe Piscopo satirized Rooney's squeaky voice with the refrain, "Did you ever wonder ..." For many years, "60 Minutes" improbably was the most popular program on television and a dose of Rooney was what people came to expect for a knowing smile on the night before they had to go back to work.

Rooney left CBS in 1970 when it refused to air his angry essay about the Vietnam War. He went on TV for the first time, reading the essay on PBS and winning a Writers Guild of America award for it.

He returned to CBS three years later as a writer and producer of specials. Notable among them was the 1975 "Mr. Rooney Goes to Washington," whose lighthearted but serious look at government won him a Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting.

His words sometimes landed Rooney in hot water. CBS suspended him for three months in 1990 for making racist remarks in an interview, which he denied. Gay rights groups were mad, during the AIDS epidemic, when Rooney mentioned homosexual unions in saying "many of the ills which kill us are self-induced." Indians protested when Rooney suggested Native Americans who made money from casinos weren't doing enough to help their own people.

The Associated Press learned the danger of getting on Rooney's cranky side. In 1996, AP Television Writer Frazier Moore wrote a column suggesting it was time for Rooney to retire. On Rooney's next "60 Minutes" appearance, he invited those who disagreed to make their opinions known. The AP switchboard was flooded by some 7,000 phone calls and countless postcards were sent to the AP mail room.

"Your piece made me mad," Rooney told Moore two years later. "One of my major shortcomings - I'm vindictive. I don't know why that is. Even in petty things in my life I tend to strike back. It's a lot more pleasurable a sensation than feeling threatened."He was one of television's few voices to strongly oppose the war in Iraq after the George W. Bush administration launched it in 2002. After the fall of Baghdad in April 2003, he said he was chastened by its quick fall but didn't regret his "60 Minutes" commentaries.

"I'm in a position of feeling secure enough so that I can say what I think is right and if so many people think it's wrong that I get fired, well, I've got enough to eat," Rooney said at the time.

Andrew Aitken Rooney was born on Jan. 14, 1919, in Albany, N.Y., and worked as a copy boy on the Albany Knickerbocker News while in high school. College at Colgate University was cut short by World War II, when Rooney worked for Stars and Stripes.

With another former Stars and Stripes staffer, Oram C. Hutton, Rooney wrote four books about the war. They included the 1947 book, "Their Conqueror's Peace: A Report to the American Stockholders," documenting offenses against the Germans by occupying forces.

Rooney and his wife, Marguerite, were married for 62 years before she died of heart failure in 2004. They had four children and lived in Rowayton, Conn. Daughter Emily Rooney is a former executive producer of ABC's "World News Tonight."

I give complete and warm respect to Andy Rooney.

Anyone performing anything close to his demise age, deserves such.


That's not saying he did not piss me off many of the times I listened to him.

Nov 15, 11:37 PM EST

'Wizard of Oz' Munchkin Karl Slover dies at 93

DUBLIN, Ga. (AP) -- Karl Slover, one of the last surviving actors who played Munchkins in the 1939 classic film, "The Wizard of Oz," has died. He was 93.

The 4-foot-5 Slover died of cardiopulmonary arrest Tuesday afternoon in a suburban Atlanta hospital, said Laurens County Deputy Coroner Nathan Stanley. According to friends, as recently as last weekend, Slover appeared at events in the suburban Chicago area.

Slover was best known for playing the lead trumpeter in the Munchkins' band but also had roles as a townsman and soldier in the film, said John Fricke, author of "100 Years of Oz" and five other books on the movie and its star, Judy Garland. Slover was one of the tiniest male Munchkins in the movie.

Long after Slover retired, he continued to appear around the country at festivals and events related to the movie. He was one of seven Munchkins at the 2007 unveiling of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame dedicated to the little people in the movie. Only three remain of the 124 diminutive actors who played the beloved Munchkins.

"He has a genuine immortality," Fricke said. "Of the 124 little people, he's one of the handful who got to enjoy this latter-day fame, to have people know who he was and be able to pick him out of the crowd in the movie."

Slover is the first of the three trumpeters to herald the Munchkin mayor when he makes his entrance. Slover had been cast to play the second trumpeter but switched when another actor got stage fight during filiming, said longtime friend Allen Pease, the co-founder of the former Munchkinland Market Days outside Chesterton, Ind.

"Karl didn't know what stage fright meant," he said.

Slover was born Karl Kosiczky in what is now the Czech Republic and he was the only child in his family to be dwarf sized.

"In those uninformed days, his father tried witch doctor treatments to make him grow," Fricke said. "Knowing Karl and his triumph over his early life, you can't help but celebrate the man at a time like this."

He was buried in the backyard, immersed in heated oil until his skin blistered and then attached to a stretching machine at a hospital, all in the attempt to make him become taller. Eventually he was sold by his father at age 9 to a traveling show in Europe, Fricke said.

Slover continued to perform into his late 20s, when he moved to the United States, changed his name and appeared in circuses as part of a vaudeville group known as the Singer Midgets. The group's 30 performers became the nucleus of the Munchkins.

He was paid $50 a week for the movie and told friends that Garland's dog in the movie, "Toto," made more money.

The surviving Munchkin actors found new generations of fans in the late 1980s when they began making appearances around the country.

"It wasn't until the Munchkins started making their appearances in 1989 that they call came to realize how potent the film had become and remained," Fricke said. "He was wonderfully articulate about his memories, he had anecdotes to share."

Chevy Chase did a movie called "Under the Rainbow" based upon the filming of "The Wizard of Oz" and the partying exploits of the munchkin actors with a backdrop of Nazis and Japanese spy characters. I remember laughing out loud and rolling when I saw it in the theatre.

A couple of years ago I went looking for a copy and found copies to be sparse to non-existent.

After playing in multiple eBay auctions where tattered, used VHS copies went for over $40.00, I finally scored a perfectly fine VHS for about $25 as I recall.

With DVD's already existing for about 15 years, I distinctly remember my wife saying "You paid $25 for a used VHS tape?"


Of course, I look now and see it has finally been released to DVD and is available

Don't think I saw a report: Did the CALI-DARKSTAR summit meeting occur? If so, what issues were discussed and/or resolved?

J.R. wrote:Don't think I saw a report: Did the CALI-DARKSTAR summit meeting occur? If so, what issues were discussed and/or resolved?

LOL!

In all likelihood we will both together encounter the "Occupy Berkeley (Cal)" and/or "Occupy San Francisco" movements sometime in the next few days. He arrives out here tomorrow (Thursday at lunchtime in California), but is most likely on a company work mission until Sunday.

I suspect Darkstar and I will be most focused on sports, drink and food if we can get together. My wife may join us for part of the time we hopefully get to see each other.

I really thought about trying to get Darkstar to "Occupy San Francisco" for some photo ops to share here, but now that it is coming out the place is truly rampant with bad doggie diseases I am not so inclined to go there and possibly track germs home.

Within the past few weeks my Dad has gone from his "board and care" facility to an Oakland hospital and then back to his board and care. And then a skin wound he developed went to a higher level so he went to a hospital in my town for a few days, and then to a skilled nursing facility one town over for another couple of days. Medicare is ticking and a major influence at each step. Today he went to a combo skilled nursing/long term care facility with the hope of getting his wound solid and some ambulatory ability to get him back to his original Oakland board and care in one of the few "good areas" of Oakland.

(the administrator there is female, an RN, Indian (as in New Delhi) and smokin' hot and I'm sure must know something about Kama Sutra, I would think)

Today in the newest facility I went to visit to tell the staff about his needs and desires and to sign the requisite 33 pages of documents (yes, 33 pages).

While I was with the admissions person in the dining area, a female resident in her 80's rolled her wheel chair into the room and announced:

" You two fokkers better get the fock out of here because this room is gonna blow in 5 minutes."

The admissions person simply said, "thank you Kathleen for sharing, and we will try to hurry with our work and should only be a few more minutes."

I made the mistake of offering a follow up inquiry as to the source of the "blow up" info and Kathleen told me she had been warned by a man in uniform earlier in the day.

Kathleen once more admonished we should "get the fock out," and offered that she had shared the same story with a man in the lobby who told her she "was full of sheet."

It's OK she added, as she surmised he would simply be blown up, too.

I did playfully request the staff person to hurry with the paperwork.....and she did.

On my way to my truck, I looked back and saw no sign of explosion.

Hey Donna....

I'm adding deviled eggs to my Thanksgiving appetizers this year. I've always loved them, and now kick myself for not previously learning how easy it can be to make some versions.

I just purchased an antique egg plate off of eBay that I hope and expect will be here before the Thursday meal.

Trust me, one gets odd and blank looks walking into California stores in 2011 and asking if they have any deviled egg plates.

I had some work in The City of San Francisco late this afternoon.

I ended up the day with an F Muni ride to Fisherman's Wharf, and a Happy Hour visit to one of my fave albeit tourist destination restaurants of Scoma's on the wharf. Scoma's is best known for being the wharf restaurant most likely to use the daily local catch.

The dungeness crab season is in full play. Normally the docks behind Scoma's have deserted fishing boats, but as the sun went down and the stars came up late this afternoon they were brimming with activity.

It was pretty cool, plus I have always had a soft spot for seawater and marine life fragrances.

I had the Calamari Calabrese. And two Anchor Steam drafts.

One of these days I'm going to get the nads to try some crab again. I've only had crab twice in my life...the first time 28 years ago....and ended up "nauseous plus" each time. Not necessarily a "cause and effect," but it did cause me to stop trying crab. I have wanted to embark a couple of times over the past ten years, but my wife has implored me not to telling me stories she's heard about allergic reactions causing strangulation and death and dismemberment or something......


The Calamari Calabrese at Scoma's put the Calamari at Guy Fieri's new restaurant out here (Johnny Garlic's) to shame.

http://m.cincinnati.com/photos?galleryi ... 0801&img=1

Los Angeles sheriff's homicide detectives are taking another look at Natalie Wood's 1981 drowning death based on new information, officials announced Thursday.

Cali:

Good to hear that you went to San Fran without your wife and didn't get any crabs.

Hillbilly wrote:Cali:

Good to hear that you went to San Fran without your wife and didn't get any crabs.

LOL!!!

J.R. wrote:http://m.cincinnati.com/photos?galleryi ... 0801&img=1

Los Angeles sheriff's homicide detectives are taking another look at Natalie Wood's 1981 drowning death based on new information, officials announced Thursday.

I saw that, JR, and my first thought was about Rocky John Raccoon Coltrane.

Rocky was quite the Natalie Wood fan, as was I.


Now, my second thought, was the irony that this was announced in sync with the 50th Anniversary of her West Side Story, including the new theatrical release.

I was in Reno last weekend, and of course my wife and I go frequently. Here is a night photo of the the three square mile fire with the Reno downtown in the foreground.


Kudos to the Reno casinos with hotels. Club Cal Neva is offering free rooms to fire evacuees and the top properties like Silver Legacy, Peppermill and Atlantis are offering a deeply discounted weekend rate of $29.